yard

English has two nouns spelled yard: an enclosed piece of ground, from Old English geard, and a measure of three feet, from Old English gerd “rod, stick”.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /jɑːd/, US /jɑːrd/^[4]

yard¹ ground

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yerd,^[2][5] inherited from Old English ġeard (“fenced enclosure, garden, court; dwelling”),^[2][1][6] from Proto-Germanic *gardaz,^[1][2] also the source of Old Norse garðr “yard, court”, Dutch gaard “garden” and Gothic gards “house”.^[1][5] The related form *gardô gave German Garten and English garden.^[1][6][3] Watkins derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gher- (“to grasp, enclose”), whose derivatives outside Germanic include Russian gorod “town” and Lithuanian gardas “pen, enclosure”.^[2][1][3] It is also related to orchard.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small open area attached to a house or other building: before 1000 in the OED.^[7] Old English geard also meant a garden, court, house or region.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

An enclosure in which animals are kept, or some work or business is carried on, is from about 1300 and the late 14th century,^[7][2][6] A college campus is from the 1630s, in American use,^[2][7] a prison exercise yard by 1777,^[2][7] and a railway yard for making up trains from 1827.^[2] The Yard for Scotland Yard is from 1888.^[7] In Britain a yard is usually a paved area near a building, while in the United States it is the garden of a house.^[3] In Jamaican English a yard is a house or home, and expatriate Jamaicans call Jamaica Yard, the source of Yardie.^[3] The yard sale is attested by 1965.^[2]

Timeline

• a. 1000 – an enclosed area by a house.^[7]
• c. 1300 – an enclosure for animals or storage.^[7]
• 1630s – a college campus.^[2]
• 1777 – a prison yard.^[2][7]
• 1827 – a railway yard.^[2]
• 1888 – the Yard, Scotland Yard.^[7]
• 1965 – yard sale.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of ground next to or surrounded by a building or buildings.
2. (US) The garden of a house.
3. An enclosed area used for a particular work or business: a builder's yard.
4. An area where railway trains are made up and stored.
5. the Yard: Scotland Yard.

Word family

• courtyard
• backyard
• farmyard
• graveyard
• shipyard
• churchyard

yard² measure

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yerd,^[1][2] inherited from Old English ġerd (“rod, stick; a measure of length”) (Mercian), West Saxon gierd,^[1][2][6] from Proto-Germanic *gazdijō (“stick, rod”),^[2][1] also the source of Old High German gerta “switch, twig” (German Gerte).^[1][6] It was formed from *gazdaz, the source of Gothic gazds “sting” and Old Norse gaddr “spike”, and so of gad.^[1][6] Etymonline relates it to Latin hasta “shaft, staff”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slender shoot or twig, and a stick or staff: about 950 and 1000 in the OED, senses now obsolete.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Anglo-Saxon times it was also a land measure of roughly five metres, later called a rod or pole;^[2] the yard of three feet is attested from late Old English,^[2] and as the standard measure for cloth especially from the late 14th century.^[2][6] It has been the standard English unit of three feet since the later Middle Ages.^[3] The nautical yard, the spar on which a square sail hangs, keeps the original sense “rod” and is from the late 13th century.^[2][3] The spelling yard is first recorded in Lydgate, probably before 1439.^[1] Yardstick is from 1816, American English,^[1] and yardage from 1877.^[1] The phrase by the yard, in great quantity, is figurative.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 950 – a twig, stick.^[7]
• late 13th century – a ship's yard.^[2]
• c. 1385 – yerd, a measure, in Chaucer.^[1]
• 1816 – yardstick.^[1]
• 1877 – yardage.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A unit of length equal to three feet, or 0.9144 metre.
2. (nautical) A long spar slung across a mast to support a sail.

Word family

• yardstick
• yardarm
• yardage

Related words

• garden
• orchard
• gad

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin